Reader has some questions about future of commuter rail

Posted: Tuesday, May 21, 2002

In the everyday writings of this date, we see a lot of comment about the new commuter rail that is supposed to be a reality quite soon. More recently we seem to be seeing a failure in the effort to produce such a rail entity. Money is failing, just not coming like it was supposed to. Most recently (April 28) there was an editorial about purchasing land for the right-of-way of the new rail line. This article said that it would be great to have the ROW all purchased when the rail got started.

There seems to be some forgetfulness working in these comments. Not too many years ago I rode a train from Atlanta to Athens for a football game. What happened to those rails? Are they still available? If not, why?

The train group received the sum of $10 million that was set up for engineering and preliminary development. What happened to that money? It was stated that the Atlanta-Athens line would cost $378 million with an annual operating cost of $16.8 million. Thus the drivers of this program are estimating a cost of operation without having any real idea of what they are actually going to build. A change in the type of track could materially change the cost. For example, will the rail be monorail? Will the track be narrow gauge or standard? How many bridges will be required? How about stations? What insurance will be required? Who will decide these questions? Are they really qualified? How many rail lines have they set up?

It appears to me that this is a classic example of the halt leading the blind. It should be noted that some design facts must be resolved before setting too much money into the plan. How are we to know who will use the railroad? I, for one, probably will not use it. My transportation needs will not fall in place to a fixed schedule. Thus, I would fail to be able to use the rail system.